There is a need for low cost, aqueous-type vehicles which are suitable for use as continuous film forming printing inks. Organic solvent vehicles create health, safety, pollution and other hazards. These hazards would be circumvented with the advent of a commercially acceptable, aqueous vehicle. Heretofore, numerous aqueous vehicles have been proposed as an organic vehicle replacement. Unfortunately, the aqueous based vehicles fail to possess prerequisite properties which enable them to function as an acceptable, organic vehicle replacement.
Included among the adverse functional attributes of aqueous based printing vehicles are: poor gloss, inferior film hardness, inflexibility and brittleness, incompatibility with diverse ink formulation components, poor wet and dry-scuff resistance, non-homogenity or inability to retain ink homogenity throughout the printing operation, unstable viscosity, poor pigment loading, crazing, false bodying, floating and flocculation problems, low pigment to binder ratios, compounding deficiencies, poor printability characteristics, (e.g., accumulation or buildup of ink deposits upon the printing member, undesirable rheological characteristic, poor tack characteristics, inferior ink transfer from the printing member to substrate, inferior hue and hiding power, inferior color development, excessive drying requirements, etc.). Since ink formulations are dependent upon a composite of functional attributes, attempts to correct one or more of the aforementioned defects generally accentuates some other undesirable characteristics to an even greater degree. These factors have frustrated attempts in finding a commercially acceptable aqueous vehicle substitute.